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To all my friends out there who are interested and still read my newspaper, I would like to thank you for your dedication and friendship that you have given me over the past year and a half that I have spent on erepublik. I come to you today writing my 199th article, the penultimate article of my erepublik career. Today, we recount the life of an Erepublican, his final chapters in this new world.

This final chapter begins where the last one left off,
***A Patriot's Tale, Recounting the Life of an Erepublican (Part 3)***


Previously in "A Patriot's Tale"
Uncle Sam had begun his political career with a Presidential run. He helped establish the AAP and ran into troubles with the infamous Evan Bayh. After booting Evan from the AAP leadership for his unworthy leadership skills, Uncle Sam became disenchanted with the game upon the release of V1, and was sent into a downward spiral of inactivity. Now as we begin the story today, loose ends are wrapped up, and we see what brings Sam out of his inactivity.


Rebirth into the AAP
Uncle Sam had recently removed himself from the spotlight. His friend Benn Dover had just become President, and with that, his Presidential aspirations had to take a back seat. The November was cold for him as V1 was an unfriendly change from beta days. Needless to say, the sory had to continue, and so a changing wind brought Uncle Sam back into activity. That change was the sudden change in leadership into the position of AAP President. The last President of the party had to resign for his inactivity and failure in the congressional elections in which the AAP only won 1 seat.

And so Uncle Sam became the PP of the AAP for the first time, promising to bring it back into glory. This sudden responsibility brought back the fiery passion into Sam as he wished to truly make his party prosper and grow. Sam worked furiously to rebuild the inactive party, and with his dedication, the AAP awoke. In this whirlwind of activity, Uncle Sam drafted a manifesto for his party, stepped up recruitment by recruiting Isac Newton to be head of recruitment to pass what is now known as the UIP (formerly UCP) and brought more active leaders to the AAP.


French Toast
Uncle Sam took a short break to go on vacation IRL. At a state conference, he got a text from his friend Benn stating that we had declared war on France. Uncle Sam's initial reaction was, "Fuck Yeah!" While still leading his party, Uncle Sam reported on the war and fought as a tank for the USA, inflicting as much damage as possible against France. This war brought on Uncle Sam's first political misadventure through the party elections.

Uncle Sam was sent on a mission to fight in Canada against France in the 4 pronged ATLANTIS attack. As a result, he had to surrender his position of PP for a short bit while fighting in Canada. Unfortunately, this cost him the election, as he could not return in time to re-register himself as a candidate for the Party Presidential position. As a result, Ian John Locke IV won, and in turn gave the party back to Sam. This won Sam his party, but also an enemy, as John Jay was much displeased with how the election went down. This enemy would later haunt Sam in his political career.


Congressional and Presidential Campaigns
With the war on France winding down, Uncle Sam resumed his political career. He organized the AAP in order to bring them back into congressional power. with 25 candidates, himself included, the AAP was looking to make a big jump from their last congressional election. luckily, the AAP made a huge jump getting 10 seats in congress. Unfortunately, Uncle Sam did not make it in, at which point he made an announcement about the flaws of Congressional election process.

Despite a loss in the Congressional elections, Uncle Sam's passion for politics was not lost, and he began his campaign for President for January of '09. With GoBucks as his VP, Sam's campaign focused on fixing the economy after a war that devastated our markets. He also campaigned to protect American interests in war as well as defending our allies instead of aiding our offensive allies. He also promised funding for the military.

Sam's opponents in this election were two close friends, Justinious and DesertFalcon. Justinious had secured the LiB nomination as well as various smaller parties nominations. DesertFalcon had the CVP supporting him as well as a couple smaller parties. finally, Uncle Sam was backed by the USWP and the AAP. It was a close race as in the end, Uncle Sam lost to Justin by only 20 votes, the narrowest margins in the history of USA Presidential elections.


Justinious and his term
Now that Justin was President, Uncle Sam took on some extra responsibilities. He became Press Secretary for Justin and wrote many articles on behalf of his government. In addition, he also took on the role of ambassador to Italy for the month. while gaining these responsibilities, Uncle Sam also lost the AAP to Ian John Locke IV by a single vote in the Party Presidential elections. This upset Sam, however he did not take the loss to heart. Instead during stressful political times, he took an eVacation to Italy to establish better foreign relations as well as earn some medals.

His vacation in Italy revived his spirits politically, and upon his return to the USA, he resumed political duties. He also won congressional elections in PA to help better serve the country, however within Congress was the realization of a different type of government. Politics was now run on the forums instead of the media, and this adjustment was slightly difficult for Sam. As a side note, Sam also released a sequel to one of his most successful articles, the development of War Tactics, Age of V1


Business is Booming
All through the French War and Justin's term, Uncle Sam and Benn Dover's company empire was growing, and fast. Upgrades were being made, new kinds of products were being sold, and profits were being raked in. The two biggest companies between the two of them were Uncle Sam's Lot and Guns N' Stuff. As business boomed, stock piles of gold were made to be spent on whatever the two businessmen desired. Company value increased as exports were bought and more gold was invested. Yes, the markets were treating the Patriot and his friend quite well.


February Presidential Elections
It was time for Sam to bust out the campaign banners once again as February came around. Sam was making another run at President after serving Justinious in so many ways. Sam's initial VP pick was William Shafer, however that did not sit well with Sam's previous friends in the USWP. As a result, Sam lost the USWP nomination to Justinious. In effect his VP choice also lost him the LiB nomination, which also went to Justinious.

Sam's outlook on the campaign was bleak, as his only top 5 supporters were in the lower ranks as the AAP and CVP. Regardless, Sam pulled together a massive media campaign with a platform full of promises for more organization in the military. rebuilding the treasury after the robbery committed by Franco through increased taxes was another campaign promise. He also ran on a platform of staying in ATLANTIS and establishing a more powerful reputation in the world as the biggest country. The most exciting promise from his campaign was that of bringing war games to America. In the midst of all this, Uncle Sam dropped his VP of Will Shafer in order to save face and regain trust of those voters he lost, and chose Joe DaSmoe to replace him.

All those decisions could not have been wiser. Despite daunting odds, fighting against the two largest parties in the USA (and given the reputation for party line voting) Uncle Sam pulled off a win. It was a historic election as the USWP and LiBs combined lost to the underdog, something that has never been seen in American politics. With this win, Uncle Sam began his eLife long dream, and began his Presidency of the USA.


Uncle Sam's First Term as President
Uncle Sam got right down to business and established his cabinet. He had much work to do, the Treasury had to be rebuilt, and adjusting to the position took time. Getting into the swing of things for President was difficult as Sam had to work on 3 different forums (USA, ATLANTIS and Military). Luckily he had people to help him and so policy was beginning to be made.

A few of Uncle Sam's first actions as President included a trade embargo with Switzerland, who was recently taken over by Theocrats. As a result, Sam made another enemy, one that would also come back to haunt him. He also felt the need to attack Portugal "for the lulz" The rationale behind this action was to help stimulate the economy as well as give the USA a bit of military experience. As a result from this battle, bad blood was formed between the USA and Portugal, but also a new way of thinking came from it when it came to military strategy.

Sam began to push for higher taxes under the theory that Funding beats all the organization in the world. If the USA was to become more powerful, Sam realized that he needed to provide more funding for the military, so that more damage could be be done in war and so that tanks could rank up, becoming more powerful. At the same time, he was still trying to rebuild the treasury that was depleted before his Presidency.

Accomplishments
Other accomplishments during his first term was the quick founding of Meals on Wheels. This department was brought in because of the recent tax change where income taxes across the board were raised to 20% in order to supply more funding, also known as the PANEC taxes. Meals on Wheels provided food to only those new citizens who were active enough to deserve it. The dollar value was also brought back up after the devastation of the French War which satisfied the population greatly. Other programs were also started like the ABOA in order to encourage exporting for the country. He also helped to nationalize weapons for the military by giving them their own Q1 and Q4 companies to operate for a private supply of weapons to increase military efficiency. Finally, at the start of his term, Uncle Sam created Fort Knox Federal Reserve in order to have more security in our treasury.


ATLANTIS vs. PEACE
The seemingly endless conflict that went on and on was a hot topic during Sam's Presidency. He had to fight off Indonesian political takeovers in newly formed countries like Singapore and the Philippines. Unfortunately, these efforts were wasted as Indonesia took over India and in less than two hours, all of their land as well. Sam spoke out often against Indonesia, it's hypocrisy and their vile tactics.

Near the same time, Romania was beginning a war against Indonesia while also fighting off the growing Hungary. This brewing war in Asia and Europe would eventually entangle the USA, and Sam knew this. At the time Romania proved to be quite powerful, holding off two large enemies at once, however things could change for the worse as Hungary was growing more powerful every day.

Seeing PEACE gaining so much power, Sam knew that it was time for the USA to step up it's game, and so he declared war on Mexico. Sam's main goal for this war was to really get some military exposure for the USA. Upon the first day of battle, the USA took 3 regions, however were halted when an invisible barrier in the regions made it impossible for the USA to continue war. Still, this was beneficial to Sam as he already had what he wanted from Mexico, and that was some land to play with.


War Games and the Wars that Followed
After taking some land from Mexico, Uncle Sam implemented resistance war games. This was a style of war games that allowed only the USA to participate, giving us much more training advantages over PEACE. A resistance war would be started in Baja every Monday and Friday and all of the USA was ordered to fight for the defenders side. As a result, the USA gained much experience, and a tradition was soon to be set.

The Presidential elections for March came around, and Sam's biggest competitor was Scrabman of the USWP. Not to anyone's surprise, Uncle Sam won by a decent margin of around 200 votes as he had done an amazing job with his first term.

Then, greed consumed Uncle Sam. He wished to bring the USA even more power, and his goal was to secure more valuable resources, like high Iron and Diamonds that the USA did not have. his main goal was to invade Russia, who had a neighboring region of high Diamonds. Sam began to make plans to invade, he informed ATLANTIS and congress of his intent, however this undid any hope of taking the region. there was a leek and Russia found out about the planned invasion, and so they resigned all their MPPs, which before hand were lacking.

As a result of this, Uncle Sam turned to his military advisers as to where he should go for high resources, and the Idea of going as far south was suggested. Iron in Brazil was only two countries away, and if the USA could begin a southern campaign, it was believed that they could secure a high iron region.


Misadventures in ATLANTIS
Travel back to when Sam declared war on Mexico. The war proposal was spontaneous, and as a result, ATLANTIS wasn't informed in time. One of the laws required that the USA pay a fine of 100 Gold to each member nation for the infraction of not notifying the alliance. Since the fines had not been paid by other countries, it was believe that ATLANTIS would let the USA off the hook as well. a 4/5 vote to veto the fine was needed and in the vote, two countries, the UK and Poland voted yes out of a total of 9 member nations. The USA would have to pay the fine.

This enraged the USA population, and a big fuss was made over ATLANTIS. Many called for the USA to leave the alliance, however Sam stood for what was safest for the country, and aimed to stay with ATLANTIS. Every other member nation in ATLANTIS repaid us the 100 Gold fine, except for the UK. It was however, agreed between the two presidents that the UK would return 90 gold to the USA if certain terms were met. The damage to the public was already done, despite the fact that the USA only paid 10 Gold as a fine, the country still blamed Sam for handling the situation poorly.

Misadventures in Mexico
Getting back to the hunt for resources, Sam began a push south, deeper into Mexico. Right after the ATLANTIS issue, this did not sit well with the public, especially since when getting towards the very end, PEACE threw more firepower towards the USA. Sam's enemy of the Theocrats also came back and with their incredible wealth and strength repelled a majority of the USA's attacks (with help from PEACE).

when Sam declared Operation Final Blow, his goal was to attack Portugal and block them from attacking the Southeast after the USA secured the region. Unfortunately, Mexico decided to retreat in the Southeast, a maneuver unseen and unpredicted by American tacticians. This caused Portugal to attack the USA in neutral land and use their MPPs to march with ease through Mexico to retake the territory.

The end result of the actual war in terms of land was a stalemate, however most Americans viewed it as a loss, especially since the country's morale had taken such a hit. Despite this, Sam's original goal for the war was accomplished, the USA had gained more war experience, and now instead of being slightly stronger than Canada or the UK, the USA was now on par with Brazil Spain and Italy. However, the "loss" combined with the ATLANTIS issues caused the country to blame Sam and so a serious impeachment proposal was thrown up by congress.


Impeachment
After the first serious impeachment failed, Uncle Sam had a week to make things better in his country. The war ended, and negotiations began to take place. People felt that Sam had to communicate better with his military, his congress and his country. Sam included all of congress in on the negotiation process as well as his military, however it still wasn't enough for the enraged country.

In the meantime, Romania was fighting Indonesia in Russia, and a massive attack was being planned. In order to secure a high Iron region from Indonesia, Romania needed highly skilled tanks, and they offered to pay for the gold needed to buy wellness packs. Sam along with his military officers agreed to go through with the operation, however the USA needed to provide the weapons. Sending our best 3 tanks, the USA had to spend 431 Gold to pay for all the Q5 weapons. The mission was a success and Indonesia was crippled for a time, as Romania could rampage through their lands with ease. It was a great win for ATLANTIS, but not for Uncle Sam.

The 431 Gold was spent without congressional approval, and so when the shit his the fan, Uncle Sam was once again blamed for his lack of communication skills. The country felt emasculated and out of the loop by Sam's leadership style, and so Congress proposed an impeachment, without passing the prerequisites for a real proposal, and passed. Uncle Sam was kicked out of office... or was he?

Reports say that Uncle Sam resigned an entire day before the impeachment was actually proposed, and eye witnesses such as Tiacha confessed it in articles or in Justin's podcast. Regardless, Uncle Sam's time as President was over.


Winding Down in Latvia
Uncle Sam was tired and weary from his time as President. They were by far the most stressful times of his erepublik career. After declaring support for Scrabman, the citizen who took over after Sam was impeached, Sam left for Latvia, a new country, where he wished to find a less stressful environment, and still try to enjoy the game and it's politics. Unfortunately, that is not what awaited Sam in Latvia.

Sam joined Latvia with honest intentions. He wished to help establish a safe country, and worked with the RL Latvians to protect the country from political takeover. Another group of people who created a political party, United Latvia (UL), also set up camp there, claiming honest intentions. The two factions tried to work together, however a boisterous citizen named Roy Munson, made any civil attempts as unity impossible. Sam took a lot of political heat in Latvia for his past in the USA, a lot of it coming from the UL and their group.

When it came time to defend the country in congressional elections, UL and the RL Latvians combined had about half the seats, and so it seemed as if the country was safe from Hungarian and Indonesian takeovers. Wrong again, the UL left when they were unable to take the treasury gold, as as a result, foreign invaders held the majority of congress. No sooner was the money from the treasury gone and put into PEACE pockets. This experience for Sam killed his drive in Erepublik.


The Last Chapter
Uncle Sam returned to the USA with very little enthusiasm. He had lost his fiery passion for the game. He no longer had any aspirations as he felt he had already accomplished everything in the game. Benn Dover had already begun to leave, and Uncle Sam felt that his time was drawing to a close.

In the middle of May Uncle Sam announced that he would be retiring from erepublik and that he would drift away into nothingness. His plan with Benn was to sell all of their companies and hoard the Gold for some unknown purpose. Until Uncle Sam's final article is released, the use of that gold will remain unknown, a surprise to all. From then on, Uncle Sam only prepared for his departure, selling companies and occasionally writing a joke article here or there. He vowed to himself that he would write his 200th article and then be gone.

and so this Patriot's tale comes to a close.





The End?

As mentioned, I have only one more article to release, and then I will be gone forever. This article is already written and is called "the Naughty List." This article tells the true story behind Benn Dover and Uncle Sam. The article has been drafted for over a year now, waiting to be released upon the departure of Benn and myself.


Until Next Time,
-Uncle Sam-


USA! USA! USA!